Friday Briefing: Passives will end stock market engagement if we let them

Friday Briefing

The rising passive trend has been well documented, and the explosion of active ETFs has been touted as the next big thing for asset managers, with more and more appearing each day.

But this move is seemingly eroding the market's stewardship role to hold its participants to account and progress change, which is a scary thought when you look up and see the world's social and environmental problems are getting worse, not better. I've been sat for some weeks mulling over why I've felt odd about the recent trend of ‘active' European defence ETFs coming out thick and fast. It was during our annual Future of Investment Festival's final panel last week that Paris Jordan, head of responsible investing at Charles Stanley, eloquently summed up what I had been trying to put...